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During a year when advanced technologies like AI, quantum computing, drones, and other dazzling breakthroughs have captured the imagination of our industry, it’s easy to overlook some equally compelling advances in other technology segments. This is not terribly surprising; our industry has always chased the next big thing, and the potential of these innovations cannot be understated.
However, despite the significance of new applications like AI, one cannot forget about the technologies that serve as the foundation for these new advances and enable them to maximize their impact. As the former head of engineering and development at Cisco and the current co-founder and CEO of a company focused on enterprise connectivity, it should be no surprise that I’m speaking of the humble enterprise network.
The network has become so intrinsic to the fabric of modern business that it is rarely discussed beyond the offices of the CIO and IT. Like water or electricity, only those rare moments when we are cut off from the network’s utility do we fully appreciate its critical importance to our everyday lives. Without the connectivity provided by a secure and reliable network, the vast majority of businesses would simply stop in their tracks, wholly unable to function. In 2025, as businesses worldwide continue to increasingly turn to advanced technologies to enable them to compete and grow, so too will the network become more and more critical to an organization’s success.
With this rising importance in mind, I’d like to share a few prognostications for the year ahead, with a special focus on how organizations leverage their networks and how business and technology leaders will reevaluate how they prioritize their network needs.
Prediction #1: A combination of return-to-office (RTO) mandates and hybrid work models will force CIOs to consider new consumption models to meet their campus network needs.
One of the most surprising impacts of RTO mandates for CIOs is the sudden need to ensure secure, reliable, high-performance connectivity for office workers returning to physical campus networks. Complicating this trend is that, in many cases, companies are instituting a hybrid model that will see wide variance in remote and on-site workers depending on the day of the week. This complexity makes it challenging to construct operational and architectural decisions regarding how a network is managed and maintained.
A recent survey of more than 1,500 executives (2024, ResumeTemplates) uncovered that while 26% have expanded their RTO requirements this year, an additional 21% will increase office days by the start of 2025. Of this group, 34% have already extended the requirement to a full five days per week or are planning to do so.
No matter how you slice this data, what’s clear is that many IT leaders will need to address connectivity and vulnerability needs, as the number of workers onsite will fluctuate significantly, placing odd demands on bandwidth requirements. Moreover, the increase in workers moving between remote and in-office work will likely mean an increasing number of compromised devices coming and going from the campus network.
As a result, in 2025, CIOs will turn to more flexible bandwidth consumption models to give them the agility to cope with these dynamic environments. This includes “as-a-Service” models that directly incorporate network security at their foundation.
Prediction #2: As secure, reliable network connectivity becomes increasingly critical to business operations, CIOs will struggle to balance available talent with other IT projects tied to the company’s core competence.
IT leaders in 2025 face a paradox: They’re increasingly tasked with projects aimed at boosting revenue or otherwise augmenting their business’s core mission (e.g., leveraging AI and automation), which, in turn, results in a deep need for increased endpoint and data security to support these initiatives. However, the amount of resources (in terms of talent, hardware, and software) and budget they can dedicate to network infrastructure is shrinking. These difficult choices will force CIOs to re-evaluate their approach to solving this riddle.
Prediction #3: 2025 will see IT interest in AIOps shift to more autonomous networking
There have been many positive advancements in recent years leveraging AIOps to streamline network operations and management. But these efforts have been somewhat hampered by silos within the network architecture. Many disparate data models, compounded by different hardware and software solutions, impact the ability to produce conclusive findings and recommended resolutions that IT can trust. This has impacted the industry’s ability to create truly autonomous networks, not to mention IT’s willingness to fully accept this approach.
Major advancements in 2024, consolidating data models and producing predictable telemetry, are now pushing new boundaries. In 2025, we’ll see a strong emergence of what we call, AI automation that takes over a significant amount of network operations, detecting and resolving a wide array of issues without the need for any human intervention. With a dearth of available talent, leaders will increasingly turn to solutions that offer more out-of-the-box automation, following similar paths pursued in other aspects of IT infrastructure.
Prediction #4: In 2025, IT will acknowledge the campus network as the weakest link in its security posture.
With the rise of cloud services and remote work, IT has recently shifted its attention to cloud-based security, leading to the rise of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). This allowed for the enforcement of policies where users can securely connect from anywhere and consistently reach needed internal and external resources.
Unfortunately, traditional campus network security practices have not evolved at the same pace. This means that remote workers are, in many ways, more secure than those in the office. Moreover, the rise of The Internet of Things (IoT) and Operational Technology (OT) devices (sensors, cameras, smart building devices, etc.) has increased the local network’s attack surface by an order of magnitude. As a result, the campus Local Area Network (LAN) is a prime target for threat actors, as a single compromised device can enable an attacker to move “laterally” throughout the network, penetrating critical systems.
Just as importantly, a disproportionate number of these cyber-attacks target small- to medium-sized organizations that lack the resources and expertise to implement adequate security measures.
IT is just now waking up to these new vulnerabilities. As a result, in 2025, the industry will shift to ensuring that campus security moves from a confusing tapestry of overlay solutions to one where security is built into the campus network from the very start. New emerging networking architectures will make security a key aspect of their solution, considering the resource gaps to ensure they are simple to implement.
Prediction #5: Legacy network and security technologies like VLANs and NAC will see their slide into irrelevance accelerate dramatically.
The need to fortify the campus, as well as rapidly evolving network requirements and security threats, have made it clear that legacy technologies and architectures are quickly becoming irrelevant. I believe new architectures will rise in the coming year, precipitating the end of VLANs and NAC throughout the industry.
Several trends are driving this change. Cloud management combined with Layer 3 device segmentation is becoming simplified, allowing enterprises to eliminate complex NAC solutions, as well as VLANs and their inherent Layer 2 security vulnerabilities.
Some final thoughts on 2025…
This is my first time engaging in this level of speculation, so we’ll see how accurate my predictions are in early 2026. At the very least, a new year provides us with the opportunity for a bit of introspection and forward-thinking as we evaluate our needs for the coming year.
In the meantime, I look forward to engaging with many of you as we all work on greater and more positive outcomes throughout 2025.
